At a Glance

  • Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was released from New York City Department of Correction custody on Friday after serving time for felony perjury charges. According to media reports, he was released early for good behavior.
  • The former CFO pleaded guilty in March to two counts of perjury following a plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, as previously reported by CFO Dive. As part of the agreement, he was sentenced to five months in jail, with the term beginning April 10.
  • "Allen Weisselberg has been released today and is reunited with his family," Weisselberg's attorney, Seth Rosenberg of Clayman, Rosenberg, Kirshner & Linder LLP, said in an emailed statement to CFO Dive.

Deep Dive

The former CFO was charged with five counts of perjury for providing false testimony during the New York Attorney General's civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump, in which Weisselberg was also a defendant.

Judge Arthur Engoron's ruling in that case required Weisselberg to repay the $1 million severance he received from the Trump Organization as ill-gotten gains and permanently barred him from serving as a financial controller for any company in New York, as previously reported by CFO Dive.

Trump is currently appealing Engoron's civil fraud ruling—which found Trump liable for fraud and ordered him to pay $464 million in disgorgement and other costs—and filed a motion in June requesting that Engoron recuse himself, according to an ABC News report from June.

Weisselberg was "a key player in almost all of the fraudulent acts," Engoron said when issuing the ruling, as CFO Dive reported at the time.

Weisselberg's current stint for perjury marks his second time behind bars. The former finance executive previously served time after pleading guilty to tax fraud charges in 2022, CFO Dive reported. As part of the 2022 plea deal, Weisselberg was required to repay $1.99 million in taxes, penalties, and interest and was sentenced to five years of probation along with jail time.

Legal experts previously told CFO Dive that the earlier conviction paved the way for Weisselberg to serve time in state prison if he were convicted again on perjury charges.

Weisselberg began his second stint as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's criminal trial against former President Trump was getting underway. That criminal trial involved hush money payments made during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and the court found Trump guilty on all counts in May, according to a press release from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Although lawyers had raised the possibility that Weisselberg might testify in the hush money trial, neither prosecutors nor the president's defense attorneys reportedly called him to the stand.